The Cursed Whispers of Demonic Temptation
by Sarroush
Summary: Lucy is sick and tired of Fairy Tail wanting to bust Jellal out of prison. Feeling the need for a break, she decides to leave the guild for a few days. But what happens when she receives an invitation hard to pass by? A promise to destroy the root of her problems once and for all. The cost? Abandoning Fairy Tail and betraying the one she loves. Contains multiple couples!
1. Destined Encounter

**A/N:** Hey there! Thanks for dropping by. While working on my other Fairy Tail related fic, I decided to start a new one. Rather spontaneously at that. The idea came to me two days ago, I outlined 18 chapters and decided to just go through with it right away. So who knows how it'll end up!

The fic takes place between the Edolas & S-class arcs, and has a good number of couples in it. However, if you aren't caught up with the manga, you might not have knowledge about key characters present in the story. Why aren't you caught up anyways?! ;_; This arc is so good! Get to it!

In any event, I hope you enjoy.

Have a fun ride!

* * *

It was a typical day at the guild, or so Lucy wished. With the Master out to a meeting, key members in the all esteemed guild of fairies were in a heated debate. A debate in Fairy Tail? About what? One had to wonder. Given this was a guild of innocent troublemakers who always left a mess wherever they went, you would assume they were planning on throwing a party or celebration or what have you. That was to be expected from Fairy Tail after all. Surprisingly, this wasn't the case. For the last month, ever since the Edolas event, the whole of the guild had been trying to find a way to recruit a certain mage.

Now, you wouldn't think that to be a big deal, until you understood exactly who they wanted. Jellal Fernandes. The man sent to prison for federal treason. The same man who completed the Tower of Paradise, and manipulated the council to fire Etherion. Nearly the whole of Fairy Tail wanted him in the guild.

Of course, given the reputation of the guild, they tended to act before thinking. Whenever Natsu figured out a plan to bust the criminal mage out, Grey would shoot it down with "He's a criminal, if we bust him out, we're up to be sentenced too." Natsu would just try to find an alternative. Jellal could act like Mystogan! People would nod in agreement. Some would find another problem with the situation and call it out. They would sit there and ponder until they found a solution.

This had been going on for an entire month. There was one mage however who was sick and tired of it. She hated Jellal. She had no idea how everyone else had forgiven him so easily. All the things he had done to Erza, the fear he had put in her, the way he had treated her, Simon's death. It was as though everyone had forgotten all about it, Erza included. She was too busy being swayed by the potential idea that the guy she liked would be back in her arms soon. That didn't sound like Erza at all. But whenever Jellal was mentioned, she would turn to mush. And Lucy Heartfilia was sick of it all. She loved her friends, but she would never accept Jellal Fernandes into the guild. If he got in, she'd get out.

Was it unfair? Sure. She was forcing her friends to choose. She was forcing Erza to choose. Why would she even have to choose? The answer was right in front of her! Jellal should stay in prison. It was as simple as that. Lucy still couldn't believe that Natsu had called him their friend during Nirvana's attack. Friend? FRIEND?! After all he had put Erza through?! What was Natsu's problem? Just because Erza was smitten with the guy didn't mean Natsu had to claim that they were friends. Sometimes, Fairy Tail was just unbelievable. It felt as though Lucy was the only logical person in the guild. She wished Mystogan was still here. Then, Erza could have fallen for him instead and all would be well. Why did she have to be in love with a criminal of all people?! Lucy remembered Erza's confession that it was in fact Jellal who had saved her from the Tower and not Natsu, but was that really enough? Was her life being saved really enough to forget about everything that happened?!

"Ok! I've figured out the perfect plan!"

Her inner ranting was interrupted, and she looked towards Natsu from her seat at the bar, one hand under her chin, the other resting on her knee.

"Let's see what stupidity you have in store now," Grey exclaimed, ready for the worst.

"Hey! My ideas are foolproof. You guys are just too scared to take chances," Natsu retorted.

"Yeah, yeah. Just get to it already," the ice mage motioned with his hand.

"We won't even make a scene. We'll just sneak in, get him out, and replace him with another criminal! We'll use shapeshifting magic! So when people see him on the streets or taking missions, we can just claim he's Mystogan, from Edolas!" He seemed so proud of his supposedly yet again foolproof plan.

"Natsu," Erza spoke after a good amount of silence

"You like my plan, Erza?" He smiled. "We'll get him back in no time!"

"Do you actually think that plan will work? How are we supposed to get him out without any commotion? It's not like we can just walk in there," the requip mage shook her head.

"Sure we can! We'll just have Mira over here shapeshift into that council guy or one of the guards! She'll go in, get him out and we'll just throw in some random criminal in there, and done! Jellal will be free!"

Of course, no one took his plan seriously. Shaking their heads, they decided to go back to the drawing board. An hour later, they were throwing ideas left and right. Lucy was sick of it. Sick? Understatement. She wanted to get away from the guild as fast as possible. So she got up. She got up and this garnered the unwanted attention of the entire guild.

"Lucy! Do you have an idea?!" Natsu went to her and prompted her.

"Idea?" It had a sting to it. "Idea?!" She let her anger out. "Even if I HAD an idea, I would never share it with any of you. You know what? Maybe I do have an idea. How about we do this? We forget that man exists and move on with our lives. All he's ever done is cause pain to people we care about but apparently that's all behind you now. You want him in Fairy Tail?! Have you forgotten what happened in the Tower of Paradise? Have you forgotten what he put Erza through for so long?! What is wrong with you guys?!"

Natsu held her from her shoulders, trying to have her face him, "Lucy, Lucy please calm down. Jellal, he...Yeah, he did some pretty bad stuff, specially to Erza. But Erza's forgiven him. It isn't fair to hold a grudge on the guy if the one person he caused the most amount of pain to forgave him already."

"That's what I don't understand! How can you forgive him so easily, Erza?! Is it because you're in love with him?!"

Erza looked away. She didn't know what to say. Had she forgiven him? Sure. Should she have? She wasn't too sure, but at the same time, given not all of it was his fault, she felt bad putting all the blame on him. He had saved her life too! That had to mean something. He even helped beat the Oracion Seis! Erza's feelings were in a disarray.

"I'm done. I can't do this anymore," the entire guild looked at her confused.

"What are you talking about, Lucy?" Erza let out quietly, worried about what the girl actually meant.

"If you want Jellal in the guild so bad, then go and get him. You've been planning it for over a month now anyways. But I'm done. If Jellal joins, I'm leaving for good," resolute in her decision, she made her way to the entrance of the guild, only to be stopped by Natsu.

"Lucy, think of what you're saying! You'd abandon your family because of one guy?" Natsu tried to plead with her. He couldn't lose Lucy.

"You'd put your family at risk because of one guy?!" Lucy retorted back, eyes beginning to swell with tears. Natsu wanted to hold her. Hold her and apologize. He had no idea how much pain Lucy was actually going through. He wasn't sure why she was going through the pain, but he decided he'd find out. He wanted Lucy happy. He wanted to protect her. He never wanted to make her cry!

"Lucy," Erza walked up to her. "I'm so sorry. We can be a little inconsiderate sometimes. Hey, come on. Let's go for a walk and we can talk," the scarlet haired mage whispered with a faint smile.

"I don't want to talk, Erza. I just want a break. I am sick and tired of all of this. Just, leave me alone. Please."

The guild was in silence. All that could be heard were Lucy's retreating footsteps. Both Natsu and Erza thought the same thing. "_I can't let her go. I might never see her again." _But neither of them moved. Both stayed in their places, feeling like equal failures.

* * *

Lucy felt like shit. No, it wasn't an understatement. She really did feel like shit. She was an ass to Natsu and Erza. She was being hysterical. Some of which she said did make sense, but her hatred didn't. Of course, she knew that if she thought about it long enough and admitted to it, everything made sense. But could she be bothered with it? No. Would she be bothered with it? No. Even if she didn't go deep down into her psyche, the point remained that Jellal wasn't someone Fairy Tail should have been friends with. His actions weren't something that could be so easily forgiven, but apparently they were. What? Did Erza and Natsu know something Lucy didn't? Something Jellal only told those two who happened to tell the entire guild but her? What was it? Was he being mindcontrolled? Manipulated? If he was being mindcontrolled, then she supposed she could forgive him. But manipulation and mindcontrol weren't the same thing. Say he was being manipulated. He allowed himself to be controlled, he didn't bother fighting back, and then he became engulfed in darkness. So whose fault is that? Sure, it's the fault of the person who manipulated him, but it's also his fault! Why didn't he fight back?! He should have fought back!

Lucy shook her head. There was no point in thinking about it any longer. She'd just take a few days away from the guild to sort through her thoughts and decide on the next course of action. She in no way wanted to leave Fairy Tail. She loved every single person in the guild. The person she was in love with was also in the guild. Of course they were being stupid and unreasonable, but that was Fairy Tail for you. Then again, Lucy herself was being unreasonable too, so she couldn't really complain too much.

The blonde finally decided to stop walking and was flabbergasted. It was night! The moon was shining! Where the hell was she?! A forest! She didn't even remember walking here. She thought she was just walking to her apartment. She wasn't lost, she knew the place, it was the forest where Porlyusica resided. But the question was, how the hell did she end up here?! Was she busy mulling, ranting, raging so much that she didn't pay attention to where she was going? It was possible, she had to admit. Shaking her head, she decided to just go back home.

It had been a long month. Natsu and Erza would forgive her, that much she knew. But the unfair question was, could she forgive them? Why did they even need to be forgiven? Had they done anything wrong? Erza was in love with Jellal. It was normal to want him back. And Natsu thought of Jellal as a friend after fighting alongside him. Lucy felt like an idiot. A jealous idiot. What was she jealous of though? She didn't want to vocalize it. She knew full well there was no real "remedy" for her jealousy. There was nothing that could be done about it.

Slowly making her way back, she couldn't help but wonder if Jellal had feelings for Erza.

'_Sure, he has amnesia, but do you forget your feelings too?' _ She wondered how it would feel if _that_ person forgot about her. How hurt she would be. And even hypothetically, it hurt a lot. She supposed she understood how Erza felt when hit with the act that Jellal had no recollection of her.

Lucy had to apologize. Her behaviour was unforgivable. Erza was in love, who was she to get in the way of it? Who was she to say "NO!"? She wasn't Erza's parent. She was her friend. A friend who had promised to support her no matter what.

Her thoughts were put on hold when she heard rustling. Her fear meter skyrocketed and her fight or flight system activated. Adrenaline began pumping through her as she readied her hand to grab her keys. But nothing happened. No one attacked her. A bit of rustling was heard again. Lucy's curiosity kicked in and she started moving towards the rustling. The only sounds that could be heard in the quiet forest were cicadas, the gentle breeze and the rustling that stopped.

The blonde finally detected the cause of the rustling. A heavily injured woman was under a tree, the moon shining on her, as though leading the celestial mage to her. Lucy ran up to her and knelt down. She was naked with a deep diagonal gash going from her left shoulder all the way to her stomach. Her loose dark blonde hair was dirtied with blood and she was panting heavily.

Lucy was terrified. This woman was going to die if she left her there. She decided that the best course of action was to run to Porlyusica's and ask her for help. As she was about to get up, her hand was grabbed, causing her to scream. Quickly covering her mouth with her free hand, she fell on her butt.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to go get my friend, she'll patch you up!" Lucy tried to get out of the woman's grasp. For someone who was near death, she was strong.

The dark blonde haired woman swallowed, and let out very quietly with a very raspy yet soothing voice, "I'll be fine. Just get me shelter." Her grasp weakened and she fell quiet, having fainted.

Shelter?! How?! She was bleeding! If Lucy moved her, the woman would probably die. Unless she had an unlimited amount of blood. Shaking her head rigoursly, Lucy decided to take the stupid risk.

"Open the Gate of the Lion!"

It wasn't a bad idea. Loke could have carried her to Lucy's apartment no problem! Right? Right? She had no idea. She decided to not think about it.

"Lucy, I don't think this is a good idea," Loke hesitated when Lucy relayed her plan.

"Why not? What's wrong?"

"She's not human," he said pointing to the woman.

"Neither are you, Loke," Lucy replied, unsure of what he meant.

"She smells like a demon."

"D-Demon? It doesn't matter. There is no reason to prejudice! She doesn't seem like a bad person, so please Loke. Help me. I felt like an ass enough today at the guild."

Loke nodded and listened to his mage's orders. Carrying the woman in his arms and Lucy on his back, he swiftly made it to the apartment, where he lay the fainted woman on the bed. He was thanked and dismissed.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lucy decided to get to business. She filled a bath bucket with warm water, grabbed some towels and a good amount of gauze bandages present in her room. A mage always had to be ready after all!

She didn't really know what to do, but she couldn't just leave the woman there, bleeding on her bed. The dark blonde demon (as Loke called her) was breathing heavily. It seemed that she might end up with a fever. As though bleeding to death wasn't enough. Wetting one of the towels, Lucy began to trace around the gash to clean it. Thankfully, the woman didn't spontaneously wake up and attack her.

Once she had cleaned the wound, as successfully as she thought, she began to bandage the woman's well endowed chest. She decided to summon Virgo, because doing it alone was too complicated and it didn't help that the woman wasn't exactly super light either. Once complete, Lucy put clean bedcovers on the woman. That's when Virgo stated the same thing as Loke.

"Princess, please be careful around this woman. Who knows what she is. I can say she definitely isn't human though."

Virgo had insisted to stay with Lucy until the woman woke up, to make sure her owner was safe. Lucy told her that she would be fine, and promised to summon her when she was in trouble. Though weary, Virgo eventually gave up and returned to the celestial world.

Exhausted, Lucy sat on the floor, her back touching the bed. What had she gotten herself into this time? Maybe she should call her team. But it was late. Very late. She was surprised she hadn't fallen asleep.

Her room was completely quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the sleeping woman's relaxed, equal breathing. The potential for a fever might have passed, to which Lucy was grateful.

She decided to think back on the day's happenings. Her anger towards Jellal was justified, but it might have been a bit too aggressive. She felt like she might have behaved like a child, and felt bad about it. She just cared about her friends, she didn't want them hurt. She thought about it. She could have grown to forgive Jellal and accept him into Fairy Tail one day. If he had truly changed and if Erza really loved him, Lucy would have to give him a chance for the redhead's sake. Natsu didn't easily forgive people who hurt his friends, but he forgave Jellal. Which meant the guy couldn't be THAT bad. Natsu may have had his bouts of stupidity, but he was a pretty smart guy in his own right.

The blonde decided to try putting things into perspective. Say she was in love with a person accused of federal treason, would she try to get them out of their predicament? Well. For one, she wouldn't be in love with a criminal. Ok, change of perspective. What if the person she was in love with abandoned Fairy Tail and joined a dark guild? What would she do then? Would she try to get them back? She had no idea. She was too tired to think of such questions after everything that happened.

Her mulling came to a stunning halt when she heard groggy sounds from behind her. Turning over on her knees, the first thing she noticed was piercing blood red eyes looking at her. They were gorgeous but terrifying, just like their owner.

Said owner tried to get up but was stopped by Lucy's hand.

"Please don't move. You should rest for a bit longer. That was a pretty deep wound," she lowered her back onto the bed very gently.

'_Deep wound? I was wounded? Unbelievable. How? Did it really fail? Damn it.'_

Looking at Lucy, the woman let out quietly, "Who are you?"

"Me? Oh, well, I guess you don't remember. I'm the girl who saved you in the forest. I was going to call for help, but you wanted shelter really bad and I didn't have time to waste so I brought you over to my place," she was rambling really. The woman had that impact on her. "How about you?"

_'I was saved by a human. What a riot those idiots are going to have when they hear of it. Maybe I should kill her. Tempting. But I sense something in her. Something brewing.__ A darkness.__ How interesting.'_

She actually didn't feel like moving. She just wanted to rest. After recuperating, she'd decide what to do._ 'I can't believe that disgusting creature beat me. I can't even remember what happened! How shameful. What a complete failure.'_

"Hellooooo?" Lucy was waving her hand in front of the woman, looking rather silly.

"What?" The dark blond let out coolly.

"Who are you?" Lucy felt annoyed. She had ignored her. Well, she couldn't really blame the woman who was still healing, so she decided to let it go. She was just grateful that the woman seemed well.

Looking at the blonde, the woman in the bed merely let out, "Kyouka."

* * *

**A/N:** Welp, that's the end of Chapter 1.

Let me know what you think! Chapter 2 will be out relatively soon.


	2. A Night of Decisions

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, favs, follows and PMs you guys! Every single one of them means a lot!

To **Lariie**, for your question, you'll get a hint in chapter 3 but the actual answer is in chapter 6!

Here is chapter 2. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

She still couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. Not only was she saved by a human, but a human mage. A mage of all people! Someone wanted to play a cruel trick on her, that much was obvious. After having answered the young human's question, Kyouka decided it was time to stare at the very interesting ceiling. She didn't want to converse with the girl until she was fully able to move.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn't something that could be done for at least another hour. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her body. The gash aside, she smelled of blood. She felt her long flowing blonde hair was clamped, wet, dirty with mud and her own blood. She really, really, REALLY needed to get cleaned up. It felt as though she was sleeping in her own filth.

Letting out a frustrated growl, she turned her head and opened her eyes to the girl shuffling around the room. Said girl placed a wooden chair in front of the bed and brought the small coffee table closer. Once it was in proper place, she vanished into the kitchen. The older woman tilted her head and glanced over to see what the blonde was doing.

A few seconds later, Lucy came out holding a glass of water and a bowl of cut fruits, varying from apples to grapes to strawberries to mango.

"I don't really have much to go on, my fridge is pretty empty. But you should drink up," the girl let out shyly as she sat down on the chair, placing the plate and glass on the table.

Nothing was said for a good ten minutes and neither moved from their place. The blonde girl swallowed and decided to ask something that was bothering her for a while.

"Uhm, Kyouka...-san?" Lucy was fumbling with her fingers, looking back and forth between the woman's red eyes to the floor.

Kyouka merely looked at her with an obsolete amount of interest. The darkness inside the girl had peeked the woman's interest, but it wasn't as though she could do anything at the moment. She had planned on just observing the development that occurred, but lamentably, she had to play a part in it all it seemed. For all her musing, she was unquestionably caught off guard by the celestial mage's question.

"Are you a vampire?" Lucy voiced very quietly, terrified of the truth behind it.

The dark blonde's eyes widened slightly, and this sent a chill down Lucy's spin. She was right! Kyouka was a vampire! It all made sense. That's why Loke was worried for -

"Are you an idiot?" She glanced at Lucy's hand, noting the guild symbol. The demon was already aware that Lucy was a mage. And now she knew which guild the blonde child belonged to. Fairy Tail. The guild known for their troublemaking habits. The same ones who defeated the useless sack of dirt known as the Oracion Seis. Kyouka couldn't believe they were part of the same alliance. They were such unbelievably weak pieces of trash that monkeys could defeat them blind folded. As Kyouka was musing about her useless allies, Lucy on the other hand was offended.

Ok. Maybe she wasn't a vampire. That was mean though. Lucy hadn't insulted her! And Kyouka really looked like a vampire!

"No! I'm not! But...Your hair, it's so long and shiny. And your eyes are so red. Blood red. All you're missing are fangs," Lucy lowered her head, embarrassment engulfing her. The mind of an author could easily get carried away at times. This was all the fault of her spirits.

"Do you ask the same question of every blonde with red eyes you meet?" Taking in a deep sigh, she began looking at the ceiling again.

"Of course not," came the mumbled reply. "Two of my friends helped me save you, and both of them said something strange."

_'Wonderful. The whole world and its best friend saw me.'_

"What exactly did they say?" an exhausted reply while rolling her eyes.

Looking into the red eyes, Lucy noticed that sleep was beginning to overtake the woman. She was fighting to keep her eyes open.

"They said that you weren't...aren't human...That you're a demon," she knew what she saw wasn't what she expected. What had she expected? She wasn't sure, but it definitely wasn't the older woman's quiet laughter as sleep overtook her.

* * *

Opening her eyes, the one known as the Reiseiten was met with complete darkness. Unfortunately for her, the eyes she was born with were not meant to see in her current environment. Allowing herself to adjust would prove a mere waste of time. Acknowledging that her wound had healed, she lifted herself up, trying to sense where the human girl was. The bed covers fell off her to reveal her well-endowed chest that was bandaged. Tracing over the gauze, she noted the clumsiness of the caretakers. Some places on her chest were too loose while others were a bit too tight. Overall, it was messy. Lifting the covers off completely, a cold chill came over her body as it lost contact with warmth. Feeling down to her thighs, she felt bandages there as well, but minimally. Her right thigh was covered in a thin layer of it, while her left inner thigh merely had a patch. Kyouka was so preoccupied with her body that she almost missed hearing the girl mumble a name. She didn't care much for the members of the Guild the girl was part of, but she did know that name. One of the more prominent faces of the notorious guild of fairies. Another whisper came out again, and the dark blonde was able to identify the human's location. She was stretched out on the carpet, next to the bed.

Why? Kyouka had no idea. Did she not have a couch? The chair she was sitting in? Why on earth was she on the floor, sleeping like an animal? The lack of logic humans had drove the female demon mad. Deciding that she had better things to do, she tiptoed above the sleeping figure and tried to find her way to the bathroom, but not before throwing the bed cover onto the dreaming girl. Why? She had no idea.

After a bit of troublesome maneuvering, she finally found the light switch for her destination and closed the door behind her. Taking a look around the bathroom, she noticed it was blue and had strange trade card tiles. It had a shower and a stone bathtub, with a large enough mirror and racks with different types of lotions, hair products and towels. The dark blonde haired demon stood in front of the mirror in her naked form and noticed that her bandages were more than she had suspected. Her forehead had a wrap around it, so did her left upper arm. There was a band-aid on her nose that she ripped off without hesitation. Not only were her thighs bandaged as she had noticed earlier, so was her right knee. She sighed. There was no way she could have been injured that badly. Sure, she may have underestimated the filth of an opponent she was up against, but it couldn't have been that bad.

She took a deep breath as she stared herself in the mirror. She looked like shit. Unadulterated shit. Not even an exaggeration. Weren't vampires supposed to be good looking, sophisticated, and what have you? How did the human even assume she could be one? Sure, she had red eyes. And sure, her hair was nice. But what was staring at her was something akin to death itself. The lack of sleep had taken a toll on her eyes, the dark bags were drooping close to her nostrils. Her gorgeous hair was in such disarray that it resembled a hay stack. Vampire? As if. She looked worse than a zombie. Grabbing at the gauze around her forehead, she clawed it off violently, letting it fall to the ground. The ever growing anger, frustration and humiliation were at bursting limits.

The demon began to unravel her chest. It was the work of such an amateur that it wasn't an easy job to do. Once she was able to get a few inches off, she noticed how bloodied the gauze actually was. But what caught her eye the most was the start of her wound. It began at the top of her left breast and crossed its entirety diagonally. Kyouka could only guess it went right down to the end of her belly, crossing her navel. Clutching at the cloth around her, she tore it asunder, mercilessly letting it fall on the cold hard tile. Even if no one at the guild dared speak against her, that didn't change the fact that she had disappointed herself and her companions. Remembering said people, she thought back to the one who was always next to her, worrying for her. Sayla always looked so nice and innocent, that even as a demon, you wanted to take care of her. Kyouka couldn't help it. As cold and calculating as she was, she had a soft spot for Sayla.

Looking back at the mirror, the dark mage knew it was a scar that would heal. Her body was no longer in pain, but having such a large gash was shocking and uncomfortable. Needless to say, she was thankful for demon regeneration. It made her seem weaker than she was, and if Sayla found out, she would undoubtedly be head over heels worried for the older woman. Shaking her head, she removed the remainder of the bandages on her body and turned on the cold water, stepping into the shower. The chill hitting her skin made the dark blonde squint momentarily. Without looking, she grabbed onto a bottle from the rack, opened the cap and squeezed the insides into her palm. A blue soap-ish substance came out that she rubbed onto her other hand and began massaging her scalp. Thoroughly going in and out of all the nooks and crannies on her scalp, she thought back to the darkness she'd felt inside Lucy.

It hadn't looked like she had bad intentions in the least, but there was something there. Something Kyouka had no intention of ignoring. Fairy Tail would have undoubtedly become a thorn in Tartarus' side, something she couldn't afford. If she could find a way to defeat them once and for all, all the more power to her. What better way than to use a member from the same guild? Maybe destroy it from the inside out! Once her scalp was thoroughly scrubbed, she took the bottle once more, applying more shampoo to her palms. Her hair was nearly touching the wet floor. Looking at her feet, she noticed a certain dark substance in the water, flowing to the drain. Her hair was disgustingly dirty. The dark substance? It was the dirt mixed with her blood in her hair that the water was vehemently attacking. Deciding to help it, she stepped a bit away from the running water and grabbed handfuls of her hair and began scrubbing at them mercilessly with her soapy hands. Once the process was complete, she stepped under the freezing water once more and allowed the water to rinse her off. Though the first time helped, she decided to do it two more times. The dark golden color of her precious hair needed to return. She had no intention of being menacing without being clean.

Waking up, Lucy noticed she was laying on the floor with a blanket resting clumsy on her figure. When she had noticed Kyouka had embraced her exhaustion, the day's happenings had all come crashing into Lucy's system. Needless to say that she had wanted to doze off as well. Given it didn't look like the woman in the bed was to wake up any time soon, Lucy decided to move to the carpeted floor from her chair, hug her knees and closed her eyes, her back touching the bed. She would just rest a bit until the woman woke up. Unfortunately for her, she had done more than rest, and her patient was no longer in the bed. Hearing the halting sound of the running shower water, she quickly got up from the floor and made her way to the bathroom.

That woman was suicidal! She was heavily bleeding! There was no way she could just shower like that so early! And so, she did what any worried pseudo-doctor with a patient would do. Barge into the bathroom with no care for the other person's privacy. Plus, if she was a demon, who cared?! Weren't demons all super seductive and wanting to bed you anyways? So it wouldn't matter if she was naked in there.

Nodding in approval at her plan, she grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open. It would have been pointless to say she was terrified, because that was an understatement beyond understatements. She was scared shitless. The woman before her was morphing in and out of human state. Her hands were taking the form of sharp and scaly talons and her feet were becoming very bird-like. As if that wasn't enough, two long furry ears were forming, curving around her face. Vampire? As if. What was she?! A bird demon?! She was a monster, that much was for certain. But for some reason, she wasn't able to keep that strange form. She kept reverting back to regular human hands, legs and ears.

The celestial mage decided that this was the perfect time to run away. Run away, maybe run to Fairy Hills, ask Levy to let her spend the night. It was all a bad dream after all. None of this could be real. In which case, once she went back to bed, all would be normal again! Nodding to herself, she slowly tiptoed away from the bathroom, and went to stand in front of her bed.

Without a sliver of doubt, Kyouka had sensed the girl open the door and retreat, forgetting to close it. It didn't matter. What did matter however was that her sensitivity curse wasn't working. She could have forced herself to transform if only she decreased her sensitivity to pain, but it wasn't working. Pondering on the possibility that the wound was stopping her from using her curse, she grabbed a towel from the rack and dried her hair. It's color had returned, so thankfully, not everything was against her. She wrapped said towel around her and stepped out of the bathroom. The blonde girl was standing in front of her bed with shaky legs.

Hearing the wet footsteps was cause for alarm, as Lucy yelped and fell on her butt, looking up at the demon woman who so happened to have the appearance of a human.

"P-please!" She shook her hand energetically trying to convince the weird woman to stay away. "I don't taste all that great! Really! I'm not bird-food material!"

One eye brow raised, the demon made a fake hurt face. "How dare you take me for an ornithoid?! And here I thought I was a vampire."

"V-vampires! Vampires don't have weird bird like features! You're a bird! What else could you be?!"

The demon moved to sit on the couch, still clad in the simple towel. The celestial mage stuck her back to the bed frame and hugged her knees tightly, watching the woman like a terrified animal. Once on the couch, Kyouka crossed her legs, the right one on top of the left. Resting her hands on her right thigh, she looked to the terrified human.

"So, in essence, you believe I'm a harpy? Or a tengu? What else is there? Sirens? Swan maidens?" She kept listing avian huminoids until Lucy stood up and indicated with the palm of her hand that the woman should stop.

"Ok, I get it. Silly assumption. Not sure why I freaked out anyways since Mira, Elfman and Lisanna all transform into something too," nodding to herself she accepted that Kyouka was just like the Strauss siblings.

"But those people are human."

Lucy immediately looked at the woman who let out a smirk, as though planning on rattling the blonde child. "And you're not?"

"I may have been falling asleep, but that doesn't mean I didn't hear what you said about the claims your friends made," she tilted her head a bit and stared directly into big brown eyes.

"Ha..ha..Funny.." Lucy prepared herself to undertake a huge hurdle. Run the fuck away!

"Is it really though? I guess to me it would be, as seeing you so scared gives me a certain high I absolutely adore. On the other hand, I am horrifyingly exhausted from all of this. So I'll be out about it. I am not a vampire, harpy, siren, tengu. But I am a demon."

She said it like that. As though it was the most normal thing in the world. Our blonde celestial mage did not think that however, and braced herself for a marathon.

"You know, you can run if you want. I don't particularly care to chase you right now. But, when I do feel like it, I am letting you know in advance that I will run after you, I will capture you and if you aren't good enough for me, I will devour you, not before I mess with your sensitivity and mercilessly torture you of course," plain, simple and to the point. It was enough to have the mage fall down on her ass once again, cursing the trouble she'd gotten herself into. "I'm going to assume you've calmed down. It's time we had a talk."

Oh great. A talk with a demon. It certainly wasn't going to end well for her was it? Kyouka would probably take her soul and eat her body or who knows what else!

"Talk about?" Lucy mumbled still weary.

"Your hate."

"Hate? What are you going on about? I don't hate anyone," Lucy was confused. She wasn't pretending, that's for sure. She was too tired to know what the woman was talking about.

"Please girl, I haven't got all day. I can see the hatred in you like day and night. And it's ever growing."

"Maybe it's my hatred for you!"

"Ha!" Shaking it off with her slender, human fingers, she laughed, "Child, you don't even know me. Do you hate everyone you've only just met?"

The blonde shook her head in silence as she tried to think of who she hated. Meanwhile, Kyouka was thinking of her current behaviour. She had obviously been in her human form for too long. Where was her sadistic self?! She wouldn't have tortured the girl without reason, but she was desperately trying to find one.

"Jellal..."

"Ho? The council member who was later caught for treason? Now why would you hate him I wonder?"

For some reason, that alone was enough for Lucy to go on a raging tangent.

"He forced his friends into slavery! Forced them to build the Tower of Paradise! As though that wasn't enough, he let Erza go, but she wasn't allowed to tell anyone of the Tower! Of her friends! Only she was to know, so she couldn't ask anyone for help! He killed their friend! He killed Simon! And then he was planning on killing Erza to boot! He had the council fire Etherion for crying out loud! He would've killed all of us! And for what?! To bring Zeref back! Zeref of all people! What sane person would want to bring ba-" She was pushed to the floor, her head hitting the wooden tiles mercilessly. All she saw before closing her lids was a towel flying above her head.

Opening her eyes, she was met with murderous ones. Blood red jewels filled with hatred were pouring into her as the demon held her down by her throat.

"I will kill you. I will rip you apart in a matter of milliseconds if you so much as utter a single bad thing against Zeref," she whispered as she enhanced the celestial mage's sensitivity, thankful that she was back to normal. "I will hurt you. I will maim you. Do you understand?"

The blonde mage tried nodding, but even the slightest movement was hurting her. Letting go of her throat, Kyouka sat down on the floor with her after lowering her sensitivity to normal. She wouldn't torture her yet. She wanted to see if she could recruit her after all.

"Go on."

The mage massaged her throat as she looked at the demon. '_Mother of...What the hell did I get myself into? She's going to kill me. She's going to kill me!'_

"I don't have all day, human."

Dipping her head down, she continued quietly, "He hurt Erza so much, he nearly killed her. And he was forgiven. He was forgiven so easily all because he lost his memories. Just because Erza's in love with him doesn't mean he should be forgiven so easily! She deserves better! Natsu even ended up calling him a friend. How twisted is that?! And now they're trying to free him from prison, WHERE HE BELONGS!"

Ok. So, Kyouka could somewhat understand what the girl was talking about, but she didn't really care. What she worried about was whether the reinforcement curse would work on the girl or not. If it didn't work, then she'd have to find a new plan. Which was a chore, as she had gotten lucky. Thus, she came to a stunningly cunning idea. She could take the girl with her, and occasionally give her boosts of reinforcement. Or she could just give it all at once, it didn't really matter. She had to take the girl with her anyways to nurture the darkness.

"What if I told you all your problems could be extinguished? Would you believe me?"

Lucy stared at her for a while until she let out hesitantly, "Sure, I would. But I wouldn't trust your methods. Or the price to pay."

Kyouka couldn't help but laugh. "Child, this isn't a novel, or a fantasy. This is the real world. It's not like I'm going to be asking for your soul. That's something Sayla would do though. Ok, maybe some demons do ask for souls, but I don't."

"Then what do you want?"

"I simply want you to come with me," the woman stated as she got up from the floor. Her strength had finally returned. Closing her eyes, she embraced the feeling of blood flowing through her body, of her powers, her strength, and in an instant, she had returned to her demonic self. The talon hands, the bird-like feet, the furry ears were all there. However, her clothing had materialized as well. And, it terrified Lucy. Not like that was anything new. The woman was a monster after all. A skin tight suit revealing her thighs and portion of her buttocks, her shoulders and arms covered by a striped jacket with large sleeves. Said jacket was split in four ways at the end, with a tall collar completely concealing her neck. The legs were covered by a thick pair of band wraps. Her entire face, save for her eyes and mouth was covered in a strange helmet, letting out her furry ears from both sides. Her hair fell from the back of the helmet, passing through her hood and was tied in a tight band. In the middle of the helmet stood a large gem.

"Well...shit," Lucy was stumped. That demon lady she had considered gorgeous a few hours ago? She was downright terrifying. The blonde didn't even know WHAT she was.

"Alright. This has dragged on long enough. Let me be blunt. You don't want Jellal in your life. I can make that happen. YOU can make that happen. It sounds enticing, doesn't it? Having the power to get what you want? It can become a reality. Your reality. You can wake your friends up from their twisted delusions, the lies, the deceit. Erza was it? She seems to be a prisoner of the past. Why not free her? Free her and your entire guild from that man's manipulative grasp. You can do it."

Could she really? Could Lucy really save her guild? It was strange, saying "save" as though they were in danger. Heck, who knows. They probably were! Jellal shouldn't have been trusted. Kyouka was right, he was manipulative. His being sent to prison was probably all part of his plan to ruin the magic council from the inside out. He was probably pretending about the amnesia too! All to play Erza, to have her convince Fairy Tail that he was the good guy. That's why Natsu was tricked too! Everything Kyouka said made sense. And she could help Lucy. Help her deal with Jellal. The blonde was very tempted to take the demon's invitation.

"What do I have to do?" she let out, her eyes beginning to haze.

This woman, demon, it didn't matter what she was, was going to help her save Erza and Natsu from their delusions. That was all that mattered. All that should have mattered.

"All I want you to do is come with me to my guild," she whispered seductively as she traced the human's soft cheek with a talon.

"Guild? You're a mage?" A shocked murmur.

Kyouka merely walked to the apartment door and turned the knob to reveal stairs. Tilting her head back to face the girl, she let out, "A demon has many faces," as she made her way downstairs.

The younger girl quickly wore her boots, grabbed her keys, her trusty Fleuves D'Etoiles, and followed without a second thought.

The entire night felt like a strange dream. It all seemed fake. The woman's behaviour, the things she was saying, it all seemed superficial, as though she was planning something and everything was but a mere game, that Lucy was a pawn in all of it. In the end though, it didn't matter. The blonde fairy was positive that if she went with this woman, experienced her strength first hand, she would be able to rid her friends of the cursed being known as Jellal Fernandes.

The sun had begun to crack the darkness of the night sky as they set out, unbeknownst to Lucy, for the guild of demons, Tartarus.

* * *

**A/N:** I won't lie. It's pretty hard to write someone who has had barely any scenes. You don't know how far leads to OOC, so I'm hoping I kept at least some of Kyouka's shown personality. I re-read the chapters she's a part of, and she's not really a bitch, just...She's just Kyouka. Let's leave it at that.

In any event, hopefully you enjoyed and want to stick around for more.

Chapter 3 will be mostly about Natsu. Keep a look out!


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